Pirates Still in control

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 11:48 PMJan 18, 2013 at 12:15 AM

P-W tops Fulton, unbeaten in CMAC heading into second half

By Andrew Robertsandrew.roberts@sentinel-standard.com

WESTPHALIA — With one Central Michigan Athletic Conference game left in the first half of league play, the Pewamo-Westphalia girls basketball team looked to improve to 8-0 against conference foes Thursday night.

P-W Senior Kylee Schneider made three 3-pointers in the first half and the Pirates held Fulton to single-digit point totals in each quarter to earn a 53-34 victory.Although P-W was able to force turnovers and convert them into transition baskets, Pirate coach Steve Eklund said his team needs to play with more control on defense.

"We continue to foul way too much," he said. "I thought we forced them into turnover situations, but we still gave up too many open looks.

"I wasn't overly pleased with our defense tonight, but the big thing is that we picked up another conference win."

Fulton was able to hang around for most of the first quarter Thursday night, but with P-W leading 10-7, Schneider hit her first 3-pointer to spark a 15-2 run. After Fulton's Gabrielle Seida completed a 3-point play to end the streak, Schneider hit another triple to give the home team a 28-12 lead.

P-W had a 28-15 lead with under a minute left in the second quarter and held possession as they let the clock wind down. Schneider hit another 3-pointer with :06 left to give her team a 31-15 lead at the break.

The home Pirates continued to build on their lead in the third, outscoring Fulton 15-9 to take a 46-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Schneider finished with 14 points to lead P-W, while senior Madison Smith finished with 13 points and six rebounds.

Heading into Thursday's game, Eklund said his players were concentrated on keeping their spot to themselves atop the CMAC standings and knowing that they will have the proverbial target on their back the rest of the season.

"Our focus in our pregame was to be on top in the league," he said. "With that, we need to remember that everybody is going to want to take a shot at us. We will need to be ready to play every game the rest of the way."

P-W (9-2, 8-0 in CMAC) will begin the second half of league play on Tuesday when the Pirates travel to Bath.